Tyson Chandler gives the Knicks more presence on the defensive end, and, more importantly, a veteran voice in the locker room. (Ron Antonelli/ New York Daily News)

Help arrives for the Knicks on Sunday in the form of Tyson Chandler, who is as obsessed with defense as some of his teammates are about shots and minutes.

The 7-foot-1 center has emerged as New York's defensive muscle and most respected voice in a locker room that is in dire need of guidance and maturity. Think about it: Any hope of an Atlantic Division title is slipping away and Mike D'Antoni has one player, J.R. Smith, sulking on the bench and another, Iman Shumpert, benched due to lack of focus.

"I'm definitely itching to get back," Chandler, who missed two games with a hamstring injury, said on Saturday at practice in Greenburgh. "I've been watching the last couple of games, and I need to get back out there."

The division-leading Philadelphia Sixers are in town for a matinee and Doug Collins' club is two games ahead of Boston and 5½ games up on the Knicks, who with just 26 games remaining need to make up ground in a hurry.

The Knicks have lost four straight games, all on the road, and trailed by double digits in each loss. With Chandler sidelined against the Spurs and Bucks, the Knicks gave up an average of 118 points or 22 more than they did with Chandler in the lineup.

"Tyson will definitely shore up a lot of things," said Mike D'Antoni, who listed Chandler as probable. "We've just got to have the same urgency we had the last eight minutes of (Friday's) game and stretch it out for 48."

In previous games, Shumpert started against San Antonio and Smith was given his first start against the Bucks. Neither played particularly well and things went from bad to worse on Friday in Millwaukee with Shumpert being benched for all but five minutes. Also, Smith played limited minutes in the second half and was visibly upset on the bench, often staring straight ahead as the game was being played.

"I mean, whenever I don't play the way I feel I'm accustomed to playing I'm definitely going to be frustrated," Smith said on Friday. "I've got to do a better job of channeling it to a positive energy for my team."

Smith is most effective as a scoring guard off the bench and seemed to hint that he would prefer his role as a sixth man.

"It's a different style of play with the second unit to the first unit," Smith said. "The first unit we know who's going to get the ball, we know what they're expecting, they know what's going on. The second unit, if the first person don't have it we swing it, if the next person don't have it we swing it. We play like that. It's a lot easier to play with the second unit than the first."

Smith sounded contrite when he talked about being upset on the bench and for causing a minor controversy when he posted a picture of a half-naked woman on his Twitter account. D'Antoni, according to sources, privately feared that Smith's impulsive behavior could have a negative effect on the team. But Garden chairman James Dolan pushed for the signing and thus far Smith has struggled to fit in.

He played well in his first game, a win over Dallas, but the Knicks have gone 2-6 since, which also coincides with Anthony and Baron Davis rejoining the lineup.

Davis, though, played well on Friday when paired with Lin in the backcourt. The two combined for 29 points, 22 assists and six turnovers. Davis also played a season-high 31 minutes on Friday and scored seven fourth-quarter points, but he was clearly out of gas when he missed a potential go-ahead jumper with three minutes left.

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"I had reached my threshold," Davis joked.

The Knicks lose something defensively with a Davis-Lin backcourt, but the return of Chandler can erase some of their mistakes. In fact, Chandler needs to erase a lot of mistakes.